Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

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Description: A lot of what software engineers ought to know about building software is, for whatever reason, not known (forgotten, neglected, never considered, etc.). This book is a collection of fifty-five facts that software engineers should always consider.More...

A lot of what software engineers ought to know about building software is, for whatever reason, not known (forgotten, neglected, never considered, etc.). This book is a collection of fifty-five facts that software engineers should always consider. The facts are fundamental. The facts are frequently forgotten. And above all, the facts are important to the success of a project. Robert Glass brings a lifetime's work in software engineering to this often-witty book. In his considerable experience, the author has witnessed that software engineers need to learn the same lessons over and over again. In formally presenting many of these key facts, he hopes that software builders can avoid many of the pitfalls that all too often plague a project. The book covers management, all stages of the software lifecycle, quality, research, and much more. The author even presents ten common fallacies that help support the fifty-five facts. Anyone with an interest in building better software can benefit from this thought-provoking new book.

Acknowledgments

Foreword

55 Facts

Introduction

About Management

People

The most important factor in software work is the quality of the programmers

The best programmers are up to 28 times better than the worst programmers

Adding people to a late project makes it later

The working environment has a profound impact on productivity and quality

Tools and Techniques

Hype (about tools and techniques) is the plague on the house of software

New tools and techniques cause an initial loss of productivity/quality

Software developers talk a lot about tools, but seldom use them

Estimation

One of the two most common causes of runaway projects is poor estimation

Software estimation usually occurs at the wrong time

Software estimation is usually done by the wrong people

Software estimates are rarely corrected as the project proceeds

It is not surprising that software estimates are bad. But we live and die by them anyway!

There is a disconnect between software management and their programmers

The answer to a feasibility study is almost always "yes."

Reuse

Reuse-in-the-small is a well-solved problem

Reuse-in-the-large remains a mostly unsolved problem

Reuse-in-the-large works best in families of related systems

Reusable components are three times as hard to build and should be tried out in three settings

Modification of reused code is particularly error-prone

Design pattern reuse is one solution to the problems of code reuse

Complexity

For every 25 percent increase in problem complexity, there is a 100 percent increase in solution complexity

Eighty percent of software work is intellectual. A fair amount of it is creative. Little of it is clerical

About the Life Cycle

Requirements

One of the two most common causes of runaway projects is unstable requirements

*A minimum purchase of $35 is required. Shipping is provided via FedEx SmartPost®
and FedEx Express Saver®. Average delivery time is 1 – 5 business days, but
is not guaranteed in that timeframe. Also allow 1 - 2 days for processing. Free shipping is eligible only in the continental United States and excludes
Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. FedEx service marks used by permission."Marketplace"
orders are not eligible for free or discounted shipping.